“It all happened because we said, ‘Why are you not recycling?’” explains John Pope, Executive Director of Keep Van Buren Beautiful.

Just five years ago, there was no recycling program to speak of within the Van Buren School District in Van Buren, Arkansas. Then one pointed question from Pope to the District’s Assistant Superintendent started the ball rolling on a program that has now collected over 1,000 tons of recyclables. Pope gave a presentation to the District’s Superintendent and interested faculty, emphasizing that by having recycling in the schools, the students would teach their parents how to recycle at home. He then forged a partnership with GreenSource Recycling, who provided recycling dumpsters which are accessible for community members to drop off their recyclables as well. In the 2014 Recycle-Bowl, King Elementary in Van Buren was the highest ranked Arkansas school in the Community Division. Pope continues to do outreach to schools and businesses in the area to further bolster the now thriving recycling program within the Van Buren School District.

This past fall, 42 schools in Detroit Public Schools participated in the national Recycle-Bowl Competition. Recycle-Bowl is a national competition put on by Keep America Beautiful that encourages schools to record the most recycling per person. Students had to collect recyclable materials and weigh them over the course of four weeks to try and see which school recycled more. While none of Detroit’s 42 participating schools didn’t win the national competition, they are winners to our city!

Green Living Science and the DPS Go Green Challenge, with the help of AmeriCorps Green School Coordinators, worked together to make sure the Recycle-Bowl challenge was a success and are excited to announce the top participants. These include first-place winner Emerson Elementary-Middle School, recycling 8.26 lbs/person; second place, Roberto Clemente Academy, recycling 4.87 lbs/person; and our third-place winner, Carstens Academy, recycling 4.80 lbs/person. These schools recycled a total of 13,494 pounds combined over four weeks. Overall, DPS recycled 37,791 pounds over the four-week competition!